Smart meter opposition grows (New Maine Times)

Smart meter opposition grows

AUGUSTA — Further opposition to smart meters grew early this week when 19 CMP ratepayers filed a formal complaint against Central Maine Power (CMP) and the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC). While the 23-page complaint touches on many negative aspects of the meters, it focuses most on recent evidence regarding adverse health effects and electronic privacy issues.

In May, after ruling on earlier complaints, the PUC ordered that customers be allowed to opt out and retain their old meter but also required ratepayers to pay CMP $40 initially plus a $12 monthly fee for this option. The complainants say that this is nothing more than extortion, citing The Hobbs Act which defines the term as "the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right” to support their claim.

“There is plenty not to like about smart meters: harmful effects on wildlife, adverse health effects, electronic trespass and privacy issues, interruption with other wireless devices and over-billing,” said lead complainant Ed Friedman, whose grandfather defended clients against illegal wiretaps in the 1950s and 1960s. “With customer safety at the core of the PUC mission, they can’t, with any good conscience or legitimate legal standing, extort payment from ratepayers choosing to minimize exposure to meter problems.”

Shortly after the PUC issued its first order on smart meters, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO/IARC) elevated non-ionizing radiation — the type emitted by smart meters, cell phones and other wireless devices — to their possible carcinogen category (2B). This puts smart-meter radiation at a higher risk level than such compounds as Aldicarb (active ingredient in the water-polluting pesticide Temik), Bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BPA), and coal dust, and in the same group as DDT, lead, and chloroform.

“The PUC has offered no substantial evidence or studies in the record concluding exposures to low levels of non-ionizing radiation are safe,” stated Nancy Gray, the owner and operator of Freeport's popular Harraseeket Inn. “As an innkeeper I have an obligation to provide my guests with a safe and enjoyable stay in Maine, including the assurance their visit here is free of adverse health effects and without electronic interference. The PUC would do well to remember tourism is Maine’s biggest business.”

Research into health effects of low-level electromagnetic and radiofrequency (RF) radiation has been going on for over 70 years. In 1971, the Navy Medical Research Institute published a bibliography of over 2,000 studies finding biological health effects from microwave and RF radiation going back to the 1930s.

John Carroll of Central Maine Power pointed out that in the WHO paper, only hand-held cellular phones were considered a potential threat to human health. The type of device CMP has chosen, he says, is not considered harmful. "There is no evidence of a link to cancer except for the hand-held devices," he said. "The WHO report specifically classified three types of non-ionizing radiation: industrial radiation, encountered by those who work with radar and microwaves; environmental radiation, including electric lines and smart meters; and hand-held devices. The only evidence for increased risk of cancer comes from cell phones and other hand-held emitters."

According to Kathleen McGee, another complainant and former director of the Maine Toxics Action Coalition, the debate over the meters' health effects made no sense at all.

“The perspective of the PUC and the U.S. Department of Energy, a force behind this project, is one of non-sense, not common sense,” she said. “Their fundamental precept is reversed. Considering we all are, at root, just a compilation of electrically charged particles, the question authorities should be asking is how could EMF or RF radiation from meters and other devices not affect us at some level?”

Privacy concerns are high on the list for many of the complainants. The National Institute for Standards and Technology and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers are among the more established entities to recognize potential privacy consequences of Smart Grid systems including: 1. identity theft, 2. determination of personal behavior patterns, 3. determining specific appliances used, 4. performing real-time surveillance, 5. revealing activities through residual data, 6. targeted home invasions, 7. activity censorship, 8. decisions and actions based upon inaccurate data, 9. profiling, 10. unwanted publicity and embarrassment, 11. tracking behavior of tenants, 12. behavior tracking, and 13. public aggregated searches revealing individual behavior.

Dresden complainant Charlotte Iserbyt, a former senior policy adviser with President Reagan’s Department of Education, criticized surveillance aspects of the meters.

“This is illegal search and seizure plain and simple, nothing more than warrantless wiretapping,” claimed Iserbyt. “Smart meters communicate with electronic devices in the home and transmit user information to the utility and/or third-party collectors. The net result is customer profiling and collection of detailed individual user data that can be sold or used by government.”

Carroll says that any notion that CMP is collecting user data for any purpose except billing is nonsense. "There are no third-party collectors," he said. "That's simply not true. The only company that will see user data is CMP."

An ordinance in Bath forbids CMP from installing smart meters unless the customer specifically opts in. This will put a burden on the people of Bath, Carroll says. "We will be forced by the PUC to charge Bath customers $40 plus $12 per month to maintain an obsolete technology," he said.

The new complainants seek the following from the PUC: 1) Stay the installation of further smart meters, or 2) Should further installations not be stayed, order future installations to be Opt In, and 3) Should Opt Outs continue, order past and future Opt Outs be at no cost to the ratepayer including switch-overs from ratepayers already with smart meters. 4) Should installations of smart meters continue, they request the commission ensure the required communication plan present, in an unbiased fashion, concerns expressed by this and prior complaints that identify problems (including health, interference with other devices, privacy concerns and other issues included in, but not limited to, this complaint) ratepayers may have with so-called smart meters. (Complainants contend the current CMP/PUC communication plan is incomplete and not transparent.) 5) That the commission establish, within the Public Advocate’s Office, a toll-free hot line, with the number listed on CMP bills and in their communication plan, where ratepayers may report smart meter complaints of all types. The group also requests the commission establish a database where such complaints will be recorded.

Meantime, on Tuesday, several requests for reconsideration of the "opt-out" policy were dismissed by the PUC.

"Today’s decision is the latest of seven decisions since January by which the Commission has made three points about smart meter technology: First, CMP is using the right technology. Second, state and federal authorities have addressed the health and safety concerns raised in these cases. Third, the bulk of CMP’s customers should not be required to pay for the special preferences of the small number of people who are fearful of wireless communication networks or otherwise object to smart meter technology. We know this decision won’t be the end of these complaints, but we hope we’re getting close," Carroll wrote.

“What to do while this shakes out?” says Friedman. “I encourage ratepayers to keep their existing (electro-mechanical) meters and just not pay the extra fee. That sends a clear message.”

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Beware of names that start with words like "Smart" or "Community". The so called smart meters are arguably the precursor to smart sockets and smart appliances.

Translation: When the wind stops blowing, the "smart grid" will turn off your air conditioner to make up for the power not being generated by wind turbines.

This is the nanny state at its worst. Actually, it will get much worse if we don't stop it.

From what I am reading, the health issues associated with these meters sound VERY real.

Iberdrola got a gift of $95 million from the Federal government as "stimulus" funds for these meters and immediately, they announced plans to lay off 85 meter readers. Iberdola is a foreign company, based in Spain but heavily partnered with Abu Dhabi and Quatar. So the American taxpayer is paying middle easterners and Spaniards money so that they can fire American workers and it's supposed to stimulate the American economy.

Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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